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Five-deal Friday: Wireless HDMI, free audiobooks and a free* tablet

It's all about interpretation. Meanwhile, lose unsightly home-theater cords and score the best deal ever on the awesome South Park game.

Rick Broida Senior Editor
Rick Broida is the author of numerous books and thousands of reviews, features and blog posts. He writes CNET's popular Cheapskate blog and co-hosts Protocol 1: A Travelers Podcast (about the TV show Travelers). He lives in Michigan, where he previously owned two escape rooms (chronicled in the ebook "I Was a Middle-Aged Zombie").
Rick Broida
3 min read

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Get Office 365 Personal free when you buy this Office 365 Personal-priced tablet. TigerDirect

What's the only thing better than one deal? Duh: five deals!

Imagine for example, someone offered you one donut. Then imagine they offered you five donuts. Who's gonna turn that down? (Incidentally, today is National Donut Day, meaning if you're willing to drive around a bit, you could absolutely score five free donuts. It's a good thing I'm devoting all my time to finding extra deals, otherwise I'd quickly become the Overweight-skate.)

1. Free tablet! No, free Office! Take your pick

Microsoft rarely gives away anything, especially if it has "Office" in the name, but the company continues to bundle Office 365 Personal subscriptions with Windows-powered tablets. And that's cool because that subscription includes two licenses: one for the tablet, another for your PC.

So check this out: For a limited time, and while supplies last, TigerDirect has the Hipstreet 7 Windows 8.1 tablet for $69.99 shipped, a price that includes one year of Office 365 Personal -- which would cost you $69.99 if purchased separately.

In other words, for the same money you'd spend on Office, you get a 7-inch Windows tablet. The latter is nothing to write home about -- 1GB of RAM, 16GB of storage, wimpy cameras and screen resolution that must be anemic (because it's not specified anywhere) -- but you're not here for the tablet. The tablet goes on eBay or Craigslist, the idea being to bring your Office cost close to zero.

Of course, it could also become a dedicated e-book reader, music server, media streamer (it does have HDMI-out) or the like.

2. Bluetooth keyboard

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HP

Could that tablet (or one like it) serve as the hub of a simple desktop? It could if you paired it with full-size peripherals, starting with a full-size keyboard.

Like this one: For a limited time, and while supplies last, Best Buy has the HP K4000 Bluetooth Keyboard for $14.99 shipped (plus tax). It lists for $39.99, sells elsewhere for at least $25 and earned mostly high praise from customers.

The keyboard should work with just about any Android, iOS or Windows device, and it features a numeric-keypad toggle for easier number entry.

3. TV wires begone!

Planning to mount your TV on a wall or set up a projector-powered home theater? Hope you like cables, because you're probably going to be looking at a lot of them.

Or not, if you deploy a wireless adapter that allows your home-theater gear to reside just about anywhere. Like this one: Nyrius has the Aries Matrix NAVM6 wireless HDMI transmitter for $119.96 shipped when you apply coupon code CNETNAVM6 at checkout. Regular price: $179.97. It's a Cheapskate exclusive, cheeps!

The NAVM6 consists of two main components: a receiver that plugs into one of your TV's HDMI ports, and a transmitter with an effective range of about 65 feet. The receiver features six inputs: four HDMI and two component. Woot!

4. Free audiobooks!

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Audiobooks.com

Who says there's no such thing as a free listen? Apparently June is Audiobook Month, and to celebrate, Audiobooks.com is offering a free, no-strings-attached audiobook every day between now and June 30.

Well, okay, there's one string: You need to download the Android or iOS Audiobooks.com app and use that to retrieve (and listen to) your freebies. Once you've got it installed, head to the "Booklists & Bestsellers" section to find the daily free-book list.

Don't expect anything too mainstream, but today's giveaway is an original "Doctor Who" audio drama!

5. Respect my authoritah!

Laugh your way through the weekend with South Park: The Stick of Truth, which ranks among the funniest games of all time. CDKeys has the game for $12.04, and if you're willing to "like" the outfit on Facebook (and it's your first time ordering from them), you can score an additional 5 percent off -- bringing your total down to $11.44.

Price on Steam (which, incidentally, is where you'll redeem your key): $39.99. Seriously, if you like South Park, don't miss this.

Okay, who's in for what?